Cassie Schutt wins the Logan View Invite 100 meters

Schutt enjoys historical day as Tigers take third

by Nathan Arneal
Published 4/21/10

As the winds whipped through the Logan Valley and across the grounds of Logan View, they did little to deter a great day from many athletes on the NBC girls track team. In fact, the gusting winds probably helped in some cases.

Junior Cassie Schutt led the Tiger charge with four gold medals while tieing a 25-year-old school record in the 200 meter dash. Her time of 26.2 seconds equaled the record time run by Rose Chvatal in the 1985 district track meet. Schutt’s time also ranks as the third fastest time run in Class C so far this spring, according to the Omaha World-Herald charts.

Coach Dan Watts said Schutt simply had an outstanding day, with or without the help of the wind.

“The curve on her 200 was just exceptional,” Watts said. “Normally (teammate) Alyssa (Brabec) can take her on the curve, but today she had no chance.”

Schutt began the day by wining the 400-meter dash in 61.5 seconds, a season’s best time by three seconds. Her 13.1-second time in the 100 meters gave her a gold-medal sweep of the sprints. She also anchored the winning mile relay team.

“She’s getting stronger,” Watts said. “I think her desire and ability to motivate herself is a little better. We worked on her starts, and they were really incredible. She was exploding out there today.”

The 1600-meter relay ran a season’s best time of 4:16.7 while placing first, a time that ranks second in the Class C state charts. Brabec put NBC ahead of the pack with a 64.2-second split, a lead which was maintained through the legs of Mallory Hull and Chelsea Kreikemeier before Schutt capped it off with a 62.0-second anchor leg. Watts said he feels good about the relay’s chances at improving its time further as the season goes on. Lincoln Christian has the state’s fastest time in Class C at 4:14.2.

Kreikemeier came up with NBC’s other championship with a 8-foot performance in the pole vault.

Amy Baumert looked like she was going to make it two wins in row in the 1600, but she was edged down the homestretch by Kelly Dunkau of Arlington. Still, Baumert set a personal best and crashed through the six-minute barrier with a time of 5:48.6.

Fellow sophomore Alyssa Brabec also came close to a gold medal in the long jump but settled for silver by an inch. Her jump of 16-0 is a season’s best effort by 9.5 inches.

NBC sat in third place coming out of the field events with 24.33 points, trailing Alrington (68 points) and Neumann (58).

Neumann took over the lead when Bethany Kavan’s fourth-place finish in the 100 gave the Cavaliers a 78-76 edge over Arlington. The Cavs then blew it open with 39 points in the two hurdle races.

Meanwhile, Fort Calhoun used a second-place finish in the 300-meter low hurdles to sneak past NBC into third place. In the very next event, Schutt and Brabec took back third place with a combined 14 points in the 200.

Neumann won the meet with 134 points, and Arlington finished second with 100 points. North Bend was third with 82.33 points.

Watts said he was also happy with several of his younger athletes who registered personal best performances, even if they didn’t place.

“Our goal is always to be better than last time,” he said. “You don’t have to be really good, just better than you were last time. This time I think they succeeded far and above that.”